DeFi Infrastructure Integration: How Centralized Exchanges Are Embedding Onchain Liquidity

Source: Blockworks Original Title: Coinbase embeds Solana trading Original Link: https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-embeds-solana-trading

Market Overview

BTC outpaced stocks this week as launchpads rose significantly. The week’s update highlights a clear structural shift in how crypto markets are being distributed, with infrastructure becoming the primary driver of scale and access rather than traditional listings.

Indices Performance

Markets leaned modestly risk-on, with crypto and growth assets leading. BTC outperformed (+1.6%), while traditional assets remained flat. Within crypto, aggressive rotation into trading themes defined the tape: Launchpads (+3.9%) led, followed by Solana ecosystem (+2.3%) and DEXs (+2.1%). Gaming (-6.4%) was the clear laggard, with Lending (-3.7%), Revenue Leaders (-3.5%), Ethereum ecosystem (-3.5%), and Memes (-3.4%) posting steep declines.

Infrastructure Over Listings: The Structural Shift

A major development reflects this shift: Jupiter integrated with a leading global exchange’s onchain trading stack to power swaps for Solana-based assets. Rather than listing new Solana assets directly on a centralized order book, the platform is leaning into onchain rails. Jupiter acts as the execution engine, aggregating liquidity across Solana DEXs and optimizing routes, while the exchange provides distribution, UX, and on/off-ramps.

For users, this means access to a much broader universe of Solana tokens than would typically be available through centralized listings, without needing to leave the platform ecosystem.

Jupiter generates around $4 million in monthly revenue from its aggregator offering, and this integration paves the way to monetize further. The leading exchange maintains roughly $80-$100 billion in average monthly trading spot volume, while Jupiter sits at the center of Solana spot trading with roughly $50 billion in monthly volume.

The logic behind this approach is that onchain trading removes long lead times associated with centralized exchange listings, allowing markets to form where liquidity already exists. Centralized platforms increasingly act as frontends to onchain liquidity, representing a fundamental shift in market structure.

However, permissionless markets cut both ways. Access to more tokens also means exposure to illiquid or malicious assets, so verification, liquidity checks and trade sizing remain essential.

M&A and Fundraising Surge

Crypto M&A activity has experienced drastic growth. M&A volume in November 2025 reached approximately $10.7 billion, driven largely by a major acquisition in the exchange space. Q3 2025 saw crypto M&A top $10 billion for the first time, doubling the previous record of $5 billion and representing a 30x jump compared to the same period in 2024.

By November 2025, total M&A deal value reached $8.6 billion across 133 deals, exceeding the combined total of the previous four years. M&A has grown from $457,000 in Q1 2021 to $4.2 billion in Q2 2025—roughly a 9000x increase.

The surge has been led by major exchanges executing aggressive expansion strategies. Leading platforms completed multiple high-value acquisitions in 2025, including a $2.9 billion purchase of a major crypto options platform, a $1.25 billion acquisition of a prime brokerage, and a $1.5 billion purchase of a trading technology firm.

Crypto fundraising has grown approximately 41%: from the previous cycle peak of $4.63 billion in January 2021 to the new high of $6.52 billion in July 2025. Fundraising peaked in July 2025 at $6.5 billion before decreasing to around $4-5 billion monthly through Q3 and Q4.

Year-to-date fundraising through November 2025 totaled approximately $36 billion, a significant recovery from the crypto winter years of 2023-2024 when monthly fundraising often struggled to exceed $1 billion.

Key Takeaway

The Jupiter integration exemplifies a broader structural shift: major exchanges increasingly rely on DeFi infrastructure to deliver broader market access, and onchain trading infrastructure becomes harder to ignore. This trend, combined with explosive M&A and fundraising activity, points to a maturing market where infrastructure partnerships, not listings alone, drive scale and access.